Once again the Malaysian Chess Festival will kick off off with the ASTRO Merdeka Rapid Open Team Chess Championships.
While the Malaysian Chess Festival celebrates it’s 12th year, the ASTRO Rapid Teams is even longer standing, actually taking place for the 35th time and this event is continuing to grow in popularity with every passing year, and so far a record 134 teams have registered!
As in previous years the Malaysian Chess Festival will take place at its home at the Cititel Ballroom in Mid Valley City, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Cititel Mid Valley Hotel
From 18 to 28 September 2015 practically all chessplayers in the region will converge and participate in several, if not most of the numerous competitions which should be able to accommodate all tastes and levels!
That includes an Open, Seniors and Challengers played concurrently, the Rapid Teams, Open and Age-Groups, and of course Blitz.
While the IGB Malaysian Open Championship remains the flagship and main focus of the Malaysian Chess Festival, for many it is the ASTRO Rapid Teams which is what is eagerly waited for each year.
Once again the Filipinos are expected to dominate but the locals are out too in numbers to battle amongst themsleves for national honours.
In the teams there are four GMs, 14 IMs, 2 WIMs, 19 FMs from nine countries – Brunei, China, Hungary, Indonesia, India, Malaysia, New Zealand, Philippines and Singapore – and the largest numbers are from the hosts (456), Indonesia (32) and Philippines (26).
See the official website http://datchesscenter.com
and Facebook Page https://www.facebook.com/malaysianchessfestival for further details.
News by Peter Long
